Facilities links water issue to power loss

The Office of Facilities at Ithaca College is working to fortify the college’s water system in response to the water pressure issues the campus experienced last weekend.

Zach Newswanger, director of the Office of Facilities, said the decreased water pressure across campus was a direct result of the widespread power outage the college experienced last Thursday.

“What happened was we have fail-safes in the pump house on campus which pump water to our water tower, and the power outage fried a small circuit for us,” he said. “Because of that it knocked the pumps off from working.”

Newswanger said facilities has increased its monitoring systems in the pump house and will continue to monitor it to prevent similar incidents. Newswanger said they are also looking to install another system, which will help them efficiently monitor the pump alert system that lets them know when the water tank is low.

The power outage, which occurred four miles away from the college on Coddington Road, affected 1,927 New York State Electric and Gas customers in the Ithaca area, according to NYSEG.